Concerted use of restriction endonucleases and DNA ligases allows in vitro recombination of DNA sequences. The recombinant DNA generated by restriction and ligation may be amplified in an appropriate microorganism such as E. coli, and used for diverse purposes including gene therapy. However, the restriction-ligation approach has two practical limitations: first, DNA molecules can be precisely combined only if convenient restriction sites are available; second, because useful restriction sites often repeat in a long stretch of DNA, the size of DNA fragments that can be manipulated are limited, usually to less than about 20 kilobases.
Homologous recombination, generally defined as an exchange of homologous segments anywhere along a length of two DNA molecules, provides an alternative method for engineering DNA. In generating recombinant DNA with homologous recombination, a microorganism such as E. coli, or a eukaryotic cell such as a yeast or vertebrate cell, is transformed with an exogenous strand of DNA. The center of the exogenous DNA contains the desired transgene, whereas each flank contains a segment of homology with the cell's DNA. The exogenous DNA is introduced into the cell with standard techniques such as electroporation or calcium phosphate-mediated transfection, and recombines into the cell's DNA, for example with the assistance of recombination-promoting proteins in the cell.
In generating recombinant DNA by homologous recombination, it is often advantageous to work with short linear segments of DNA. For example, a mutation may be introduced into a linear segment of DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. Under proper circumstances, the mutation may then be introduced into cellular DNA by homologous recombination. Such short linear DNA segments can transform yeast, but subsequent manipulation of recombinant DNA in yeast is laborious. It is generally easier to work in bacteria, but linear DNA fragments do not readily transform bacteria (due in part to degradation by bacterial exonucleases). Accordingly, recombinants are rare, require special poorly-growing strains (such as RecBCD− strains) and generally require thousands of base pairs of homology.
Recently, a method for homologous recombination, termed “recombineering” has made it possible to clone nucleic acids in specific strains of E. coli using homologous recombination. However, the number of strains of E. coli that can be used in this method are limited. Thus, methods of introducing recombineering functions into other strains of E. coli are needed. In addition, methods of introducing these functions into other bacteria, including other gram negative bacteria, are also needed.